NASCAR has made an announcement that they have added a new rule that will ban all private testing in 2015 which also includes the annual Daytona 500 test. This new ban will charge the stiffest penalty possible on any team caught conducting its own sessions.
The only testing that will be allowed by NASCAR is the one sanctioned by NASCAR or Goodyear. Any team caught testing on its own will receive a P6 penalty, the highest on NASCAR's new punishment scale.
The P6 penalty includes a loss of 150 points, a minimum $150,000 fine and a six-week suspension for the crew chief and other crew members.
According to Steve O'Donnell, NASCAR's executive vice president and chief racing development officer, "It will be a huge penalty if anyone is caught."
He added "it's with collaboration. It's working with the entire industry."
He believes that the teams will also collaborate and police the testing themselves and report any organization that breaks the ban. There is also no objection coming from the different teams regarding the new ruling.
Brian Pattie, crew chief for Clint Bowyer said "It's good financially for everyone, most importantly the lower funded teams who maybe don't have the funds to go test. Saving money across the board is beneficial for every team."
Aside from that change, there will also been an update in the qualifying formats including Daytona 500. The front row will now be set through group qualifying instead of the traditional single-car runs. The rest of the field will be set by a pair of qualifying races later in Speedweeks.
Aside from that, NASCAR is also reducing the horsepower of machines through a tapered spacer from 850 to 725, and cutting the rear spoiler from 8 inches high to 6 inches.
O'Donnell said "I think where you will really see it is in the turns, where drivers need to come off the throttle more, and we believe that will be where we see more passing. We believe that will happen with drivers potentially making errors in the corner, and that's not just for the lead, but the entire field."
